Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the three countries of the Mini Schengen initiative – Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, will have no effective borders between them starting in January 2023.

This will be a historic moment. There will still be borders, but our citizens won’t be stopped at them. We will have a system to exchange information for border management. Imagine how much this will help freighters who won’t have to wait at the customs terminals? We remain on the European path, but we are not stupid, and we will do ourselves things that benefit our countries, Vucic said during the Mini Schengen summit in Skopje.

The three countries, and especially Macedonia and Albania, have their EU accession process blocked. This has prompted the move to better integrate in the region, as a “consolation prize”.